(Part 2) Top products from r/budgetfood

They sell it in powder form too, if you prefer to mix it yourself. I like the smoother consistency of the bottled version better, personally. You can add flavors in a variety of ways (Mio, Hershey's syrup, Torani syrup, etc.), and you can amp up the nutrition with supplemental additions like PB2 (powdered peanut butter), Kencko (whole fruit & veggie powder), various protein powders (egg, soy, pea, whey, casein, hemp, etc.). There are also a variety of other competing vendors, some with variations for things like being keto-friendly & so on:

https://www.reddit.com/r/soylent/wiki/distributors

There's also a huge DIY community, if you want to source the ingredients yourself: (Soylent was originally an open-source recipe, which you could either purchase or make yourself from scratch)

https://www.completefoods.co/

Other people have gone the solid-food route, while keeping the meal-replacement. If you're a geek, then you'll know what Lembas bread is from LOTR; Meal Squares has kind of gone that route with a solid Soylent-style bready bar:

https://mealsquares.com/

Vite-Ramen just started shipping to their Kickstarter backers, which is a nutritionally-complete instant ramen, but it isn't deep-fried & then packaged first

https://viteramen.com/

There's a lot of cool ideas coming out in food. Like for DIY cooking, I love sweets & am a big fan of ProteinPOW's recipes, which are basically treats infused with protein powder:

http://www.proteinpow.com/

I also like a lot of the new milks, especially the ultra-filtered kind & the kind with MPC (milk protein concentrate). Fairlife's chocolate milk is super amazing, and both Shamrock (Rockin' Protein) & Nestle (Protein Plus) have high-protein milks out now (in vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate). I actually really like Nestle's strawberry protein drink, it's pretty decent!

Should all of this replace real food? I mean, I have mixed feelings about it. There are some people who live 100% on Soylent, which I don't think is like super healthy, but I also know people who have to live off feeding tubes because their stomachs don't work right, so it does keep you alive.

I like Soylent, especially the bottled variety, from a convenience standpoint. I work like 60 to 70 hours a week on average & sometimes it's just easier to grab a few bottles of Soylent when I'm super busy & then not have to worry about breakfast or lunch, but also not skip a meal & miss that nutritional intake for the day. As a bonus, real food (Soylent'ers call that "muggle food", haha) tastes like 10x better at the end of the day...if you have Soylent for breakfast & lunch, and then have pizza for dinner, it's going to taste pretty dang good haha.

Also, if you do get into mixing stuff like meal-replacement powders, protein powders, etc., shaker bottles were all the rage for a long time (a bottle with a cap on it & a metal whisk ball inside to help blend the powder into the water or milk or whatever liquid you were using). However, the latest tech is battery-operated blender bottles, which is basically a rechargeable blender. This is the one I have:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HCM92SV/

Plugs into a USB port to charge (sounds silly for a bottle, but hey) & actually does a really good job mixing. It's kind of like a high-powered milk frother, or portable Nutri-bullet mini blender. It won't chop up chunks of food or anything, but you can add a little bit of yogurt & whatever powders & liquids & it blends them up pretty nicely.

Just a couple of links to help you out.
The stonesoup has great (mostly) 5 ingredient recipes and can be easily made vegetarian.
I highly recommend How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and Appetite for Reduction for simple, basic recipes.
Also, quesadillas are a great, quick meal on a stove. If you're looking for a good vegan recipe, these Smoky White Bean Quesadillas are awesome and can be made easily without a food processor.
And this Easy Breezy Cheezy Sauce (scroll down) is delicious, cheap and easy with pasta or steamed veggies. I had a kitchen this size when I studied abroad in France a couple years ago and it can be done. You just have to learn to be creative. :) Good luck!

Hey, glad to help. I had the same epiphany a few months ago. The food really is designed for it. If you live somewhere with any sort of international market, go there and grab some Indian spices in bulk. I drive half an hour to closest one for black peppercorns, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, turmeric, green cardamom pods, and garam masala. It's so so cheap and totally worth it. Also brown rice and whatever special lentils they have like unsplit black lentils. Oh man are those foods cheaper and better than I imagined.

I also have this great book about instant pots by Roger Ebert. I'm also a U of I alum, and just found it fascinating. It's a great read and it's really interesting to read a short book by someone that is so incredibly passionate and funny about a subject like this.

These look icky. Recipe looks unreliable, too. If you want a good bagel recipe, I suggest you buy this book:

http://www.amazon.ca/Artisan-Bread-Five-Minutes-Revolutionizes/dp/0312362919/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1348260951&sr=8-1

...and follow the bagel recipe in here, because it's delicious and much better. Actually, all of their bread recipes are awesome, and super fast to make, and because it's homemade it's definitely budget-friendly. I have this book and their Artisan Pizza and Flatbreads book as well, and I love 'em.

I know it sounds simple compared to all these other great ideas, but you might check out the [Student's Vegetarian Cookbook, Revised: Quick, Easy, Cheap, and Tasty Vegetarian Recipes] (http://amzn.com/0761511709) As the title suggests it has a lot of simple, easy to make recipes that might inspire you. I wish you luck and btw 1st post.

Looks good! I would personally have let mine cook just a tad longer, but I like mine a little crispy. If making pizza is something you really enjoy, I'd suggest getting a pizza stone and a peel. Preheating your oven with the stone in there for a while lets you get the surface really hot, then you drop the pie on there with the peel, and that's how you can get a good crispy bottom. I dunno, that's how my Sicilian cousin taught me to make it. Also, get some basil!

Some things I'd add to the list that will all last a while (depending on how much you cook Asian at home):

Fish Sauce - little goes a long way, but it adds something magical and it lasts forever. One bottle = more than a year in my experience

Rice Paper - dunk it in water and then wrap anything you want in it. Again, it lasts forever & it turns any leftovers/herbs/lettuce into a superb snack or appetizer.

Tom Yum Paste - add to ramen instead of the powdered crap in a packet & you've got instant Tom Yum... add some coconut milk & it's instant Tom Kha.

Sesame Oil - add to salad dressings & stir-frys yum! And it also will add a little joy to ramen.

Mirin - Mirin + Soy Sauce + Sesame Oil + Garlic Powder = Teriyaki Sauce

I highly, highly suggest asking for a copy of "Joy of Cooking" as a send-off present.

I largely learned to cook using just that book. It has easy to follow directions on nearly every type of food (4500 recipes) and sections devoted to everything from carving up a chicken to the fundamentals of cooking eggs. Generations of Americans have learned to cook using it. The index and glossary are comprehensive and speedy to use as a reference as well.

In college, I found a second copy at Goodwill and left it in the bathroom. I probably read that copy 3 times and can now cook nearly anything from memory.

It should be linked now. :-D

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0970586892/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_uutTub0H3Y1CX

You got the farts because you didn't soak the beans long enough before cooking them.

Ninja Edit: And beans are a carb, but not a fast burning carb like white bread or sugar. Do some searching around for "Slow Carb Diet". It's outlined extensively in The Four Hour Body by Tim Ferriss.

the funny thing is i got it form an canadian amish cookbook and it was called ham and vegetable soup.

http://www.amazon.com/Food-That-Really-Schmecks-Writing/dp/0889205213/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1419813143&sr=8-2&keywords=food+that+really+schmecks

the book "possum living" suggested getting food cheap by buying in bulk at feed stores. i haven't gone this route myself. i did get a handful of black sunflower seeds which are coming up nicely right now.

http://www.amazon.com/Possum-Living-Without-Almost-Money/dp/0982053932

For ease, and to give big ups to the author, here's the link:

https://www.amazon.com/Good-Cheap-Eat-Well-Day/dp/0761184996

Relevant cool book

Will recommend

After graduating I found out my biggest barrier to eating cheap and healthy was that I didn't want to faff around forever in the kitchen when I'm starving. A recipe is only good if you will make it. I've worked my way through about half of that book now and dropped my 2 person grocery bill by $100 this month. Ingredients are cheap.

Clueless in the Kitchen is a great resource if you're just starting out. It's very basic and written for teenagers/college kids who are just starting on their own and don't have a whole bunch of fancy shit or money to just go out and buy stuff. The first section explains basic techniques, tells you what staples you should have lying around, what's cheaper to make yourself or buy in bulk, and the recipes are all very budget friendly and several of them are just guidelines for using leftovers to make something new.

Yup.

http://smile.amazon.com/The-Flavor-Bible-Creativity-Imaginative/dp/0316118400

It may or may not also be available by googling it + pdf

I know you’re not vegetarian, but I am so that is where my cookbook experience is. Quick vegetarian pleasures

https://www.amazon.com/New-Farm-Vegetarian-Cookbook/dp/0913990604

Southwestern Shepherd's Pie. https://www.amazon.com/Quick-Easy-Paleo-Comfort-Foods/dp/0062562207